1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate support apparatus and a vacuum processing apparatus that has the substrate support apparatus. The present invention more particularly relates to a substrate support apparatus which can support a substrate having a center hole formed in it in a vacuum processing apparatus which performs a predetermined process on the substrate surface, and a vacuum processing apparatus having the substrate support apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A robot has conventionally been employed to perform an operation in which a substrate is picked up before a deposition process from a substrate storage unit and placed on a carrier, or removing the substrate having undergone the predetermined deposition process from the carrier and storing it in the substrate storage unit.
An articulated robot is often used as a robot which performs this operation. An example is a robot which includes a first arm and second arm which are controlled to be driven via a driving unit and a driving belt, and in which the second arm includes an adapter at its distal end. This adapter is provided with end effectors (substrate support apparatus) which have various shapes and can hold substrates (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 8-274142 and 2001-210695).
Support blocks (pickup members) for reliably attaching/detaching substrates are mounted on the end effectors of the robots described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 8-274142 and 2001-210695 (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-236010). The support block described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-236010 includes a V-shaped groove which locks the center hole in the substrate, and the substrate's inner periphery defining the center hole is inserted into this V-shaped groove, thereby achieving stable substrate transportation and an improvement in throughput.
Unfortunately, even when the support block disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-236010 is used, the substrate swings upon speeding up the operation of a substrate transport apparatus, so it may become difficult to stably support the substrate. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, a substrate 9 may tilt on a support block 108 due to a swing in the thickness direction. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 10, the substrate 9 may perform a pendulum motion due to a swing in the circumferential direction, the V-shaped groove in the support block 108 may be cut away, and the substrate may get stuck between the end portions of the V-shaped groove. Due to these abnormalities in substrate support orientation, the outer periphery of the substrate and a substrate holder may come into contact with each other during a substrate transfer operation, or the lower edge of the outer periphery of the substrate may fall from the substrate holder, resulting in a failure in substrate transfer.